21 Jan Identity: An Expectant & Resilient Hope, 1/20/2019
Keith Rogers
Sermon Notes
We are in the throes of a baby boom at City Church
Pregnancy brings… sleep deprivation // nausea // general discomfort
And just as common as these afflictions, AN EXPECTANT AND RESILIENT HOPE
Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians penned in hope from a prison cell.
Paul starts with a celebration of two extraordinary truths: we are blessed and we are chosen.
Then, Paul breaks out in prayer.
Let’s read it together:
SLIDE 1
15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.
SLIDE 2
17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation,
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so that you may know him better.
SLIDE 3
18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe.
Even from his prison cell, Paul thinks about the men and women he met in Ephesus, people he broke bread with, people he prayed with, people he shared life with for two years before riots broke out and he was driven from the city… and he’s so full of an expectant and resilient hope that he breaks out in prayer.
I get that. Even before our children were born, our hope gave birth to song
Anna Wren’s song sprang from this prayer
Sharing her song, a song of exectant hope
As far as we know, the Apostle Paul was never pregnant, but he wote like it.
Check it out.
SLIDE 4
19 My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, 20 how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you!
The Holy Spirit had filled Paul to love people with a heart like His.
He was preaching and teaching and encouraging, even writing from prison with an expectant and resilient hope. And He wasn’t alone.
Peter was pregnant too…
SLIDE 5
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.
SLIDE 6
This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
The same Spirit that prompted Jesus to weep over the city of Jerusalem in Matthew 23, like a mother hen longing to gather her chicks under her wings, inspired Peter and Paul to love the church with an expectant and resilient hope.
Did you notice the similarities between Peter and Paul’s letters to the churches?
Listen carefully, as I read them back to you.
HOPE. INHERITANCE. POWER.
And here’s some good news for you today:
The same hope.
The same inheritance.
The same power Paul promised these first followers of Jesus can be ours today.
Not a half-share, not a watered down, hand me down hope.
The same Spirit. The same hope. The same inheritance. The same power.
On Anna Wren Eve our parents came to town and we gathered for dinner at Dreamland BBQ
February 13th was like a dream, then a nightmare…
We kept praying. We kept singing. Filled with an expectant and resilient hope.
THIS IS MY FIRM CONVICTION TODAY.
It’s a conviction I know lives in the hearts of every single member of our leadership team.
It’s a conviction I know lies at the core of dozens of Life Group Leaders here with us today.
You are blessed and chosen:
For a living hope.
For a glorious inheritance.
For an incomparably great power.
Maybe you’re here today and your dream feels more like a nightmare.
You are blessed and chosen.
Maybe you’re here today and you’re convinced you don’t belong.
You are blessed and chosen.
Maybe you’re hearing this and you’re thinking, “No, I’m beyond reach.”
You are blessed and chosen.
Your identity is more than an enneagram score or a DISC profile.
Your identity is more than a laundry list of past successes or failures.
Your identity is more than your career, your title or your G.P.A.
Our God loves you with an everlasting love, with an expectant and resilient hope.
In Jesus Christ you are blessed and chosen.
Invitation to prayer.
Paul’s HOPE under the microscope
Romans 5:1-5
the hope of the glory of God
hope does not put us to shame
Romans 15:13
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit
Colossians 1:25-29
the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory